NZ elderly quake residents moved out of Christchurch
About 150 frail aged care residents in earthquake stricken Christchurch have had to be transferred to other locations around the South Island, TV New Zealand reported on Friday.
Canterbury District Health Board chief executive, David Meates, said many of those people were in hospital level aged care and some were dementia patients, who had to be moved from what were their homes, in a very fragile state.
“We are anticipating having to shift a number more people from aged residential care centres over the next few days,” he said.
A number of Christchurch rest homes are without water, sewerage and power because of the quake.
Health authorities are also repeating calls for Christchurch residents to boil water as fears grow of an outbreak of gastro diseases.
Mr Meates says an outbreak of gastro diseases would put a significant additional strain onto health services.
“Our primary focus at the moment is with public health in terms of ensuring that people are boiling water and keeping themselves safe at home,” he told a news conference in Christchurch.
“The importance of that is that what we don’t want is an outbreak of gastro diseases through this period of time because that is something that would put a significant additional strain onto health services.”
